Mets' Francisco Lindor crushes walk-off homer to lead off ninth in win over Cardinals
Mets’ Francisco Lindor is mobbed by teammates after his walk-off home run to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals at Citi Field on Friday, April 18, 2025. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Francisco Lindor did not witness history, even if he was the one creating it.
No, as he led off the ninth inning by blasting his 250th career home run — and giving the Mets a walk-off 5-4 win over the Cardinals at Citi Field on Friday night — he kept his eyes to his right. He knew the 401-foot blast was gone off the bat, he said, and so he kept his sights on what mattered.
“I kept my face in the dugout, with the guys,” he said. “I high-fived [Jesse] Winker, and then I focused on [coach] Antoan [Richardson] at first base. I don’t even know where the ball landed . . . It was pretty cool. Everyone was running wild like we’re all little kids.”
For what it’s worth, the ball, a 1-and-1 cutter from Ryan Fernandez, landed in the second deck in right. Of the 254 players to hit 250 homers, Lindor is the first to do it as a walk-off. He’s the 19th active player to reach the milestone and the fifth shortstop with a minimum of 60% of games played at the position to reach that mark.
But as he has throughout his Mets tenure, and especially over the last two seasons, Lindor has been laser-focused on the big picture: the men around him, the final score, the march toward legacy and, he hopes, the championship that has eluded him in the 11th season of what may very well be a Hall of Fame career.
It was the eighth walk-off RBI of his career and his second this season, the previous one on a sacrifice fly against the Blue Jays earlier this month. And aptly, it picked up his teammates after a raucous final two innings that featured a circus on the basepaths, two go-ahead RBIs and one game-tying RBI. The Mets are 8-1 at home.
“The moment is never too big for him,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “He knows what’s at stake. He lives for those moments, and he came through again today. Special player, special person.”
The score was tied at 3 in the eighth when the Mets committed a gaffe on the bases and then given a gift that (very briefly) gave them the lead.
Mark Vientos led off the inning with a well-struck single to left and was lifted for the much speedier Luisangel Acuna, who stole second. Brandon Nimmo then slashed a hard grounder in front of Acuna that third baseman Nolan Arenado backhanded wide of the bag. Acuna took off, prompting a footrace with Arenado; both dived for the bag and Acuna was ruled safe and then out when his hand slipped off the base, allowing Arenado to apply the tag in a very close play.
With a runner on second and still one out in the eighth, Luis Torrens lined former Met Phil Maton’s hanging curveball into the leftfield corner to drive in Nimmo with the go-ahead run, the Mets’ first lead of the game.
But the Mets’ bullpen buckled in the ninth as Huascar Brazoban served up a homer by Brendan Donovan that skimmed the rightfield foul pole.
No matter, Lindor said.
“In the dugout, it’s just everyone knew that we had a fantastic opportunity to make something special,” Lindor said. “They had to come to me because I have great hitters behind me. They know [Juan] Soto can do a fantastic job. He’s one of the best hitters in the league. If I don’t get it done, Soto gets it done. If Soto doesn’t get it done, Pete [Alonso] gets it done.”
Some of it feels like a carryover of the magic that propelled last year’s team to an improbable NLCS berth, Mendoza said. Starter David Peterson appeared to agree.
“The group as a whole has the mentality that we’re never out of the game no matter what the difference is,” said Peterson, who allowed three runs and seven hits with no walks and nine strikeouts in 5 1⁄3 innings. “If we’re ahead, we’re trying to finish the game and get away with a win, and if we’re behind, we’re fighting our way back until the last out is recorded.”
The Cardinals kicked off the scoring on Pedro Pages’ RBI single in the second and tacked on a run in the fourth on Jordan Walker’s RBI single.
The Mets tied it in the bottom of the inning. Brett Baty led off with a double off Miles Mikolas and scored on Tyrone Taylor’s triple. One batter later, Soto, who was greeted with an encouraging standing ovation from fans, hit an RBI single.
In the sixth, Arenado singled home Willson Contreras and Vientos hit a solo home run, his second of the year.
“Pete might be one of the most optimistic guys that we have and he kept on saying, ‘We’re going to win this game, we’re going to win this game,’ and yeah, we will,” Lindor said. “You can’t just talk and not walk the path that you talk.”
And 250? “It’s a great number,” he said. “I never thought I would get to it. As a little kid, I just wanted to play baseball on TV so my mom and my dad could watch me. It’s really cool, really cool. I’m blessed and I thank the good Lord for it and a lot of the teammates that helped me.”
It made sense, then, that when it finally happened, Lindor kept his eyes trained on them.
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
